what is the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the words "Mental health"?
The responses I have had when I asked this question ranged from mad people, schizophrenia, illness, psychos, asylums and dangerous people. The vast majority in my experience were negative but mental health is not just negative, it is positive too.
This is a simplistic view of mental health taught to me a while ago which I will share with you.
Firstly we all have mental health in the same way as we have physical health.
If you imagine a long line with a plus symbol at one end and a negative symbol at the other let's call this an individuals mental health.
Now imagine a marker intersecting that line a d able to move freely back and forth along that line. Think of this as how the individual feels at any given moment. This can be influenced by both internal facts like their internal voice, view of themselves, emotions. Also by what is happening externally or a combination of these. So for example your boss or teacher praised you for a piece of work you did, you will generally feel good and you marker will move more towards the positive symbol, the day you get married, you'I've achieved something that was tough like completing your first marathon these things will move your marker more to the positive end of the line thus you have positive mental health.
Now imagine you got a d "see me after class" mark on a paper, your boss was not happy with you and told you so in no uncertain terms, the train was cancelled and you were late, you were fired or perhaps your long time partner left you, your spouse asked for a divorce, your car was written off in a crash. Someone close to you died suddenly. These things move your marker more towards the negative end of the mental health line. Most of the time for most people the marker tends to sit in the middle on a day to day basis. For someone like me who constantly thinks their not good enough or has low self esteem and depression or someone who has a mental health problem the marker will spend more time at the negative end of the line. Someone who is bi polar their marker can shift wildly from one end to the other. It's like Carrie Fisher said on a good "up" day everything was perfect and every song on the radio was for them but on the down days the world was a terrible dark place in their mind.
Medication in the form of anti depressants has helped me be in a more neutral frame of mind and with some work, support and confidence in myself I hope to move it more towards the positive end of my line.
I've had every comment you can think of mostly in ignorance.
"Get over it." "Man up" "get a grip" "pull yourself together" all I can says to those unhelpful suggestions is "If I could do them don't you think I would have by now?" I sometimes wish there was this magical switch on the back of my head I could just flick to turn off my depression but unfortunately there is not. This is not something I can just "grow out of or get over" it takes time, patience and some understanding to help someone like me and saying "I understand how you feel" or " I know where you are coming from" is not helpful either because unless you went through a similar experience you probably don't. Making decisions or offering things that you think will help can sometimes be equally unhelpful. An old boss told me he would get me to see a psychiatrist that day and reduce my work and if I needed to take the rest of the day off I could. I didn't need any of those things I just wanted him to be aware of my illness and I would tell him what I thought might help me when I needed to.
I once disclosed my illness to a work supervisor and he said the best thing I had ever heard "What can I do to help you?" All I needed was some time of to attend therapy sessions which he arranged.
We all have mental health but it can be positive too, with the right positive mental attitude you will be suprised what you can achieve but try not to assume that someone with mental health problems is dangerous or in some way inferior to someone who dosen't. At the end of the day we still get up each day and try to lead productive normal lives despite our problems and you would never know to look at us.
Stay safe where ever you are in the world, dont give up, never be afraid to ask for help if you need it and remember you are not alone.
The responses I have had when I asked this question ranged from mad people, schizophrenia, illness, psychos, asylums and dangerous people. The vast majority in my experience were negative but mental health is not just negative, it is positive too.
This is a simplistic view of mental health taught to me a while ago which I will share with you.
Firstly we all have mental health in the same way as we have physical health.
If you imagine a long line with a plus symbol at one end and a negative symbol at the other let's call this an individuals mental health.
Now imagine a marker intersecting that line a d able to move freely back and forth along that line. Think of this as how the individual feels at any given moment. This can be influenced by both internal facts like their internal voice, view of themselves, emotions. Also by what is happening externally or a combination of these. So for example your boss or teacher praised you for a piece of work you did, you will generally feel good and you marker will move more towards the positive symbol, the day you get married, you'I've achieved something that was tough like completing your first marathon these things will move your marker more to the positive end of the line thus you have positive mental health.
Now imagine you got a d "see me after class" mark on a paper, your boss was not happy with you and told you so in no uncertain terms, the train was cancelled and you were late, you were fired or perhaps your long time partner left you, your spouse asked for a divorce, your car was written off in a crash. Someone close to you died suddenly. These things move your marker more towards the negative end of the mental health line. Most of the time for most people the marker tends to sit in the middle on a day to day basis. For someone like me who constantly thinks their not good enough or has low self esteem and depression or someone who has a mental health problem the marker will spend more time at the negative end of the line. Someone who is bi polar their marker can shift wildly from one end to the other. It's like Carrie Fisher said on a good "up" day everything was perfect and every song on the radio was for them but on the down days the world was a terrible dark place in their mind.
Medication in the form of anti depressants has helped me be in a more neutral frame of mind and with some work, support and confidence in myself I hope to move it more towards the positive end of my line.
I've had every comment you can think of mostly in ignorance.
"Get over it." "Man up" "get a grip" "pull yourself together" all I can says to those unhelpful suggestions is "If I could do them don't you think I would have by now?" I sometimes wish there was this magical switch on the back of my head I could just flick to turn off my depression but unfortunately there is not. This is not something I can just "grow out of or get over" it takes time, patience and some understanding to help someone like me and saying "I understand how you feel" or " I know where you are coming from" is not helpful either because unless you went through a similar experience you probably don't. Making decisions or offering things that you think will help can sometimes be equally unhelpful. An old boss told me he would get me to see a psychiatrist that day and reduce my work and if I needed to take the rest of the day off I could. I didn't need any of those things I just wanted him to be aware of my illness and I would tell him what I thought might help me when I needed to.
I once disclosed my illness to a work supervisor and he said the best thing I had ever heard "What can I do to help you?" All I needed was some time of to attend therapy sessions which he arranged.
We all have mental health but it can be positive too, with the right positive mental attitude you will be suprised what you can achieve but try not to assume that someone with mental health problems is dangerous or in some way inferior to someone who dosen't. At the end of the day we still get up each day and try to lead productive normal lives despite our problems and you would never know to look at us.
Stay safe where ever you are in the world, dont give up, never be afraid to ask for help if you need it and remember you are not alone.
